After a successful mission, craft splashes down perfectly on schedule.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA—After a delay yesterday due to stuck cryogenic valves, NASA's Orion EFT-1 mission departed from Space Launch Complex 37B from Cape Canaveral this morning at 7:05am EST. The launch marks an important milestone: it's the first attempt since the Apollo missions ended 42 years ago to put a new spacecraft designed for manned missions beyond low earth orbit (LEO).

For NASA, Orion EFT-1 (Exploration Flight Test 1) is more than just a return to goals more ambitious than low-Earth orbit. It represents the restoration of our manned capability to explore the rest of the solar system, starting with a planned lunar rendezvous with Orion's second planned flight, EM-1 (Exploration Mission 1). Mars is the ultimate goal, but that seems like more of a dream of NASA administrators at the moment. Speaking to the media two days ago, NASA Chief Administrator Charlie Bolden and his staff made this very clear—Mars is the goal, but the steps to get there are clearly under consideration, and the team is very aware of the political and budgetary realities that it will have to overcome.

Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver spoke more pessimistically about both EFT-1 and NASA's upcoming Orion-based Mars plans in a Bloomberg interview earlier this week. "This is a test of flight that'll go for four hours, go no father than certainly satellites we launch all the time, on a commercial rocket we've launched many times, testing a heat shield which is very likely not to be used in 20 years when we actually go to Mars," she said. "I understand NASA likes to launch things; this is something the contractors and the politicians who've sold this missions to the Congress have decided they would like to proceed with, but it's not something that in my view is be best use of NASA resources."

The rocket Garver mentions that powered EFT-1 to orbit this morning is a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy, the largest American rocket currently in production. This first flight of Orion was an unmanned test flight, which was planned to last for two orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. Programmed flight time is 4 hours, 23 minutes, reaching an altitude of 5,790 kilometers (about 3,600 miles), fifteen times higher than the 260 mile altitude of the International Space Station.

Reentering the Earth's atmosphere at 32,000 km/h (about 20,000 miles per hour) to simulate the stresses of returning from the Moon or deep space, Orion will experience temperatures of up to 2,200 degrees Celsius (about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit). This will stress the spacecraft's Avcot ablative heat shield. Other components will be tested as well—crossing the Van Allen belts tests Orion's radiation protection, and the launch abort system jettison from the crew module will be tested, along with recovery systems, parachutes, flight control, and many others.

Not every component is being tested to the same extent on this flight—for example, the service module is mostly empty with some ballast. A functional ESA-manufactured service module won't fly until Orion's second flight (EM-1 aka Exploration Mission 1) in 2018.

This series of pictures of the Orion EFT-1 launch was taken by Ars contributor Brian Won, who was on the ground for the EFT-1 launch.

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A Delta IV Heavy launch has a different feel compared to a Space Shuttle launch (see Ars' coverage ofSTS-135). The solid rocket boosters of the Space Shuttle provide a massive smoke trail in addition to the tongues of flame, while the Delta IV Heavy is powered solely by cryogenic-fueled RS-68 engines, which mostly produce superheated steam as exhaust. But being parked at the NASA Causeway is still a major experience as the rumble of the launch washes over you.

We soaked up the humidity before sunrise, camped out with the hordes of space enthusiasts for hours in the dark on the causeway, less than four miles from SLC-37B, waiting for the Delta IV Heavy carrying Orion EFT-1 to lift off. Countdown proceeded through several built-in holds, then finally reached the last GO for launch. Five seconds before liftoff, the engines ignited, the pad was engulfed in flame, T minus zero hit, and Orion crawled slowly into the sky as a tremendous rumble came over us several seconds later.

Thirteen seconds after launch, the Delta IV Heavy maneuvered to the correct azimuth, and with increasing speed, it soared into the sky.

Ninety seconds later, the Delta IV Heavy was pushing into the clouds, turning into a trio of bright points in the sky before vanishing entirely from sight. We turned to the NASA feed after Orion was too high to see with the naked eye; not quite four minutes later, the two Common Booster Core (CBC) side boosters were expended and separated. About ninety seconds after that, the remaining CBC was expended and separated, the second stage took over, the protective fairings that shrouded the actual spacecraft for the ascent through the atmosphere jettisoned, and Orion was on its way into space.

It's something every space enthusiast should experience.

Update: The Orion spacecraft has splashed down in the Pacific nominal to profile and right on schedule, at 11:29am EST. Recovery operations are underway right now, and you can follow the procedure live on NASA TV as the capsule is brought aboard the Navy's USS Anchorage. Once aboard, the spacecraft will be transported to San Diego, and from there will eventually be flown back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for post-mission analysis.

"Today was a great day for America," said NASA Flight Director Mike Sarafin from the Flight Control Room at the Johnson Space Center in Houston as NASA's official broadcast wound down, signing off by concluding, "We were all on board Orion."

I watched this live this morning and I couldn't stop myself from screaming at the TV "go baby go"! I for one am very glad that we have some sort of space going vehicle, if not just the early stages. Way to go NASA!

I watched this live this morning and I couldn't stop myself from screaming at the TV "go baby go"! I for one am very glad that we have some sort of space going vehicle, if not just the early stages. Way to go NASA!

Eh. Delta IV launches aren't all that rare and a crew capsule frame is hardly much of what we need to get back into space.

Rockin! Always nice to see a heavy lifter take off, and at least it's a START at flight readying part of the SLS. By the time all this is ready they'll probably be lapped a half dozen times by spaceX, but hey, it's rocket science.

Rockin! Always nice to see a heavy lifter take off, and at least it's a START at flight readying part of the SLS. By the time all this is ready they'll probably be lapped a half dozen times by spaceX, but hey, it's rocket science.

Actually, by the time we land on the moon again we'll have to get permission from the Chinese to overfly their base.

I'm amazed it worked, I tried that exact configuration in Kerbal Space and it didn't get very high before veering to one side and exploding. Jeb was not pleased, but willing to give it another try.

I'm with you: someone must've used the F12 cheat window to turn on infinite fuel, because that setup would not have enough delta-V to make it to LEO with that kind of payload and the realistic scaling mods installed.

I watched this live this morning and I couldn't stop myself from screaming at the TV "go baby go"! I for one am very glad that we have some sort of space going vehicle, if not just the early stages. Way to go NASA!

If you mean a manned vehicle (as there are numerous unmanned launch vehicles), as others pointed out, the rocket itself was just a Delta IV. While an impressive rocket, it isn't a man-rated one, it was just big enough to perform this test.

There are two US rockets that launch regularly that may carry people in the near future: the ULA Atlas V and the SpaceX Falcon 9. Neither will carry the Orion, that would be the SLS which won't fly until ~2022 (if it ever flies at all), but the Atlas V and its successor will carry the CST-100 to the ISS, and the Falcon 9 will launch Dragon capsules...and the Dragon has been designed to be usable for deep space missions. A Falcon 9 is to launch in a couple weeks, with an attempt at landing the first stage after the launch.

Both are also working on methane-burning rockets: ULA to replace the expensive Atlas V with its politically unpopular engines, and the SpaceX rocket is specifically intended to be a fully reusable launcher capable of taking people to Mars, and from the released numbers, it'll make the SLS look small.

What causes those flashes during launch, where there is a significant brightening, that lasts for a few ms?

I was expecting to hear "we've had an anomaly" a couple of times.

Edit: spelling anomaly

I'm guessing some of the flashes you refer to have to do with passing through cloud layers, thus dispersing the light and appearing as a "flash".

Other cause would be changes is thrust: the RS-68A's get throttled up and down during the flight as the vehicle passes through various parts of the atmosphere (e.g. launch vs. max dynamic pressure (max-q) vs. leaving the atmosphere).

As a thought - and I'm sure that brighter people than me have already thought of it, but is there any reason why we couldn't start working towards having a space dry dock in LEO so that we can ferry up the supplies needed to send stuff to other planets/the moon then assemble the craft that is actually going to take us to where ever in space?

Especially if the cost starts coming down with the new players in the market.

Why Mars? Venus is much closer. I don't understand why these big shot know-it-alls ignore the obvious solution in favor of something far more expensive and dangerous. No doubt it's the corruption of a pork barrel congress and the "big space" lobby, which has Obama in their back pocket.

I watched this live this morning and I couldn't stop myself from screaming at the TV "go baby go"! I for one am very glad that we have some sort of space going vehicle, if not just the early stages. Way to go NASA!

If you mean a manned vehicle (as there are numerous unmanned launch vehicles), as others pointed out, the rocket itself was just a Delta IV. While an impressive rocket, it isn't a man-rated one, it was just big enough to perform this test.

There are two US rockets that launch regularly that may carry people in the near future: the ULA Atlas V and the SpaceX Falcon 9. Neither will carry the Orion, that would be the SLS which won't fly until ~2022 (if it ever flies at all), but the Atlas V and its successor will carry the CST-100 to the ISS, and the Falcon 9 will launch Dragon capsules...and the Dragon has been designed to be usable for deep space missions. A Falcon 9 is to launch in a couple weeks, with an attempt at landing the first stage after the launch.

Both are also working on methane-burning rockets: ULA to replace the expensive Atlas V with its politically unpopular engines, and the SpaceX rocket is specifically intended to be a fully reusable launcher capable of taking people to Mars, and from the released numbers, it'll make the SLS look small.

Are you talking about the Falcon 9 Heavy? Even at SLS's initial lower-performance variants with the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS, a Delta IV upper stage), prior to switching to the eventual 8-meter SLS upper stage, SLS is going to spank the Falcon (unintentional euphemism? ): 117k lbs vs. 150k lbs+... If they get the Falcon 9 Heavy launched successfully, on schedule, on budget, and meeting those performance values too... Well, color me shocked.(p.s. before anyone attacks me for bias: I doubt SLS will make it on schedule/budget either. I hope it does (I work on the ICPS), but there's a lot of work still to go and the wonderful byzantine world of FAR to work through).

As a thought - and I'm sure that brighter people than me have already thought of it, but is there any reason why we couldn't start working towards having a space dry dock in LEO so that we can ferry up the supplies needed to send stuff to other planets/the moon then assemble the craft that is actually going to take us to where ever in space?

Especially if the cost starts coming down with the new players in the market.

As far as I am aware LEO is still well within the bounds of a significant chunk of Earths gravity. Youd have to send things way, way further out to get a big return on it. I expect that setting up at the height that youd need to be at would no longer be a set of trivial missions.

Itd probably make more sense to set up on the moon where there are resources to tap in to, a nice solid base to build on, and a little gravity as well to make life easier.